Locke expelled innate ideas by asserting that "disquisition and proof were the test of truth; and that whatever would not stand their touch, must be considered as base metal."
— Burges, Sir James Bland (1752-1824)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for G. Wilkie [etc.]
Date
1780
Metaphor
Locke expelled innate ideas by asserting that "disquisition and proof were the test of truth; and that whatever would not stand their touch, must be considered as base metal."
Metaphor in Context
1. [back] The Publisher is sensible it may appear inconsistent for Bradshaw to advise his pupil to tread in his steps, when the exigencies of the times differ so widely. But he trusts the Reader will consider, that consistency is by no means the characteristic of Patriots, either in their apprenticeship, or when they have set up for themselves: and that they will not scruple to acknowledge Don Quixote to have been a more thorough and redoubtable Knight Errant, than any of those whose examples he followed; as they were contented to love the mistress, or engage the giant, which fortune threw in their way; while he, who might have lived comfortably at home, chose to go out of his way, create a mistress for himself, and turn a windmill into a giant, that he might enjoy the satisfaction of knocking him on the head. It might not be improper for our modern Don Quixotes and their Squires to recollect, that he sometimes met with a cudgelling, and that Sancho was not the only Squire who may be tossed in a blanket.
2. [back] Maxims are a kind of propositions, which have passed for principles of science; and which, being self-evident, have been by some supposed innate. Mr. Locke ventured to expel them from his philosophy, asserting, that disquisition and proof were the test of truth; and that whatever would not stand their touch, must be considered as base metal. Mr. Dunning reprobates this doctrine, and roundly asserts in his late famous speech, "That the facts he advanced were incontestible propositions of an abstract nature, which could not be discussed, truths self-evident, which it would be absurd to attempt to prove."
3. [back] The Publisher is conscious that the Serjeant's poetry is by no means so poetical as the Orator's prose. He wishes to do the latter all imaginable justice, and therefore takes the liberty of transplanting the beautiful flowers from the Orator's hot-bed into his own garden.--"Since the invasion of King Edward, and the massacre of the Bards, there never was such a tumult, and alarm, and uproar through the region of Prestatyn. Snowdon shook to its base; Cader Edris was loosened from its foundations. The fury of litigious war blew her horn on the mountains. The rocks poured down their goatherds, and the deep caverns vomited out their miners. Every thing above ground, and every thing under ground, was in arms." Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Ferio, Baralipton!
4. [back] Some of the young Gentlemen of the House of Commons, who have had the good fortune to receive an University education, fortunately recollecting that definition of man, that he is animal risibile, have availed themselves of this noble faculty, to prove that they are of the human species, and to confound those arguments by laughter, which they could not confound by reason, to the very great edification of the lobby and galleries, and to the honour and satisfaction of their constituents.
2. [back] Maxims are a kind of propositions, which have passed for principles of science; and which, being self-evident, have been by some supposed innate. Mr. Locke ventured to expel them from his philosophy, asserting, that disquisition and proof were the test of truth; and that whatever would not stand their touch, must be considered as base metal. Mr. Dunning reprobates this doctrine, and roundly asserts in his late famous speech, "That the facts he advanced were incontestible propositions of an abstract nature, which could not be discussed, truths self-evident, which it would be absurd to attempt to prove."
3. [back] The Publisher is conscious that the Serjeant's poetry is by no means so poetical as the Orator's prose. He wishes to do the latter all imaginable justice, and therefore takes the liberty of transplanting the beautiful flowers from the Orator's hot-bed into his own garden.--"Since the invasion of King Edward, and the massacre of the Bards, there never was such a tumult, and alarm, and uproar through the region of Prestatyn. Snowdon shook to its base; Cader Edris was loosened from its foundations. The fury of litigious war blew her horn on the mountains. The rocks poured down their goatherds, and the deep caverns vomited out their miners. Every thing above ground, and every thing under ground, was in arms." Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Ferio, Baralipton!
4. [back] Some of the young Gentlemen of the House of Commons, who have had the good fortune to receive an University education, fortunately recollecting that definition of man, that he is animal risibile, have availed themselves of this noble faculty, to prove that they are of the human species, and to confound those arguments by laughter, which they could not confound by reason, to the very great edification of the lobby and galleries, and to the honour and satisfaction of their constituents.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Theme
Lockean Philosophy; Innate Ideas
Date of Entry
05/04/2005
